Substring/Top and tail

Substring/Top and tail
You are encouraged to solve this task according to the task description, using any language you may know.

The task is to demonstrate how to remove the first and last characters from a string.

The solution should demonstrate how to obtain the following results:

• String with first character removed
• String with last character removed
• String with both the first and last characters removed

If the program uses UTF-8 or UTF-16, it must work on any valid Unicode code point, whether in the Basic Multilingual Plane or above it.

The program must reference logical characters (code points), not 8-bit code units for UTF-8 or 16-bit code units for UTF-16.

Programs for other encodings (such as 8-bit ASCII, or EUC-JP) are not required to handle all Unicode characters.

Other tasks related to string operations:

Metrics

• Array length
• String length
• Copy a string
• Empty string  (assignment)

Counting

• Word frequency
• Letter frequency
• Jewels and stones
• I before E except after C
• Bioinformatics/base count
• Count occurrences of a substring
• Count how many vowels and consonants occur in a string

Remove/replace

• XXXX redacted
• Conjugate a Latin verb
• Remove vowels from a string
• String interpolation (included)
• Strip block comments
• Strip comments from a string
• Strip a set of characters from a string
• Strip whitespace from a string -- top and tail
• Strip control codes and extended characters from a string

Anagrams/Derangements/shuffling

• Word wheel
• ABC problem
• Sattolo cycle
• Knuth shuffle
• Ordered words
• Superpermutation minimisation
• Textonyms (using a phone text pad)
• Anagrams
• Anagrams/Deranged anagrams
• Permutations/Derangements

Find/Search/Determine

• ABC words
• Odd words
• Word ladder
• Semordnilap
• Word search
• Wordiff  (game)
• String matching
• Tea cup rim text
• Alternade words
• Changeable words
• State name puzzle
• String comparison
• Unique characters
• Unique characters in each string
• Extract file extension
• Levenshtein distance
• Palindrome detection
• Common list elements
• Longest common suffix
• Longest common prefix
• Compare a list of strings
• Longest common substring
• Find common directory path
• Words from neighbour ones
• Change e letters to i in words
• Non-continuous subsequences
• Longest common subsequence
• Longest palindromic substrings
• Longest increasing subsequence
• Words containing "the" substring
• Sum of the digits of n is substring of n
• Determine if a string is numeric
• Determine if a string is collapsible
• Determine if a string is squeezable
• Determine if a string has all unique characters
• Determine if a string has all the same characters
• Longest substrings without repeating characters
• Find words which contains all the vowels
• Find words which contain the most consonants
• Find words which contains more than 3 vowels
• Find words whose first and last three letters are equal
• Find words with alternating vowels and consonants

Formatting

• Substring
• Rep-string
• Word wrap
• String case
• Align columns
• Literals/String
• Repeat a string
• Brace expansion
• Brace expansion using ranges
• Reverse a string
• Phrase reversals
• Comma quibbling
• Special characters
• String concatenation
• Substring/Top and tail
• Commatizing numbers
• Reverse words in a string
• Suffixation of decimal numbers
• Long literals, with continuations
• Numerical and alphabetical suffixes
• Abbreviations, easy
• Abbreviations, simple
• Abbreviations, automatic

Song lyrics/poems/Mad Libs/phrases

• Mad Libs
• Magic 8-ball
• 99 bottles of beer
• The Name Game (a song)
• The Old lady swallowed a fly
• The Twelve Days of Christmas

Tokenize

• Text between
• Tokenize a string
• Word break problem
• Tokenize a string with escaping
• Split a character string based on change of character

Sequences

• Show ASCII table
• De Bruijn sequences
• Summarize and say sequence
• Generate lower case ASCII alphabet

11l

Translation of: Python

print(‘knight’[1..])
print(‘socks’[0 .< (len)-1])
print(‘brooms’[1 .< (len)-1])

Output:

night
sock
room

360 Assembly

*        Substring/Top and tail    04/03/2017
SUBSTRTT CSECT
         USING  SUBSTRTT,R13       base register
         B      72(R15)            skip savearea
         DC     17F'0'             savearea
         STM    R14,R12,12(R13)    save previous context
         ST     R13,4(R15)         link backward
         ST     R15,8(R13)         link forward
         LR     R13,R15            set addressability
*
         XPRNT  S8,L'S8            print s8
         MVC    S7,S8+1            s7=substr(s8,2,7)
         XPRNT  S7,L'S7            print s7
         MVC    S7,S8              s7=substr(s8,1,7)
         XPRNT  S7,L'S7            print s7
         MVC    S6,S8+1            s6=substr(s8,2,6)
         XPRNT  S6,L'S6            print s6
*         
         L      R13,4(0,R13)       epilog
         LM     R14,R12,12(R13)    restore previous context
         XR     R15,R15            rc=0
         BR     R14                exit
S8       DC     CL8'12345678'
S7       DS     CL7
S6       DS     CL6
         YREGS
         END    SUBSTRTT

Output:

12345678
2345678
1234567
234567

ACL2

(defun str-rest (str)
   (coerce (rest (coerce str 'list)) 'string))

(defun rdc (xs)
   (if (endp (rest xs))
       nil
       (cons (first xs)
             (rdc (rest xs)))))

(defun str-rdc (str)
   (coerce (rdc (coerce str 'list)) 'string))

(str-rdc "string")
(str-rest "string")
(str-rest (str-rdc "string"))

Action!

PROC Main()
  CHAR ARRAY text="qwertyuiop"
  CHAR ARRAY res(20)
  BYTE n,m

  PrintF("Original string:%E  ""%S""%E%E",text)

  SCopyS(res,text,2,text(0))
  PrintF("String without the top:%E  ""%S""%E%E",res)

  SCopyS(res,text,1,text(0)-1)
  PrintF("String without the tail:%E  ""%S""%E%E",res)

  SCopyS(res,text,2,text(0)-1)
  PrintF("String without the top and the tail:%E  ""%S""%E%E",res)
RETURN

Output:

Screenshot from Atari 8-bit computer

Original string:
  "qwertyuiop"

String without the top:
  "wertyuiop"

String without the tail:
  "qwertyuio"

String without the top and the tail:
  "wertyuio"

Ada

with Ada.Text_IO;

procedure Remove_Characters is
   S: String := "upraisers";
   use Ada.Text_IO;
begin
   Put_Line("Full String:   """ & S & """");
   Put_Line("Without_First: """ & S(S'First+1 .. S'Last) & """");
   Put_Line("Without_Last:  """ & S(S'First   .. S'Last-1) & """");
   Put_Line("Without_Both:  """ & S(S'First+1 .. S'Last-1) & """");
end Remove_Characters;

Output:

Full String:   "upraisers"
Without_First: "praisers"
Without_Last:  "upraiser"
Without_Both:  "praiser"

With UTF8 support in Ada 2012 (Wide_Character of literals is automatic):

with Ada.Text_IO;
with Ada.Strings.UTF_Encoding.Wide_Strings;

procedure Remove_Characters
is
   use Ada.Text_IO;
   use Ada.Strings.UTF_Encoding;
   use Ada.Strings.UTF_Encoding.Wide_Strings;
   
   S : String := "upraisers";
   U : Wide_String := Decode (UTF_8_String'(S));
   
   function To_String (X : Wide_String)return String
   is
   begin
      return String (UTF_8_String'(Encode (X)));
   end To_String;
   
begin
   Put_Line
     (To_String
        ("Full String:   """ & U & """"));
   Put_Line
     (To_String
        ("Without_First: """ & U (U'First + 1 .. U'Last) & """"));
   Put_Line
     (To_String
        ("Without_Last:  """ & U (U'First   .. U'Last - 1) & """"));
   Put_Line
     (To_String
        ("Without_Both:  """ & U (U'First + 1 .. U'Last - 1) & """"));

end Remove_Characters;

Output:

Full String:   "upraisers"
Without_First: "praisers"
Without_Last:  "upraiser"
Without_Both:  "praiser"

Aime

o_text(delete("knights", 0));
o_newline();
o_text(delete("knights", -1));
o_newline();
o_text(delete(delete("knights", 0), -1));
o_newline();

Output:

nights
knight
night

ALGOL 68

Translation of: AWK

Works with: ALGOL 68 version Revision 1 - no extensions to language used.

Works with: ALGOL 68G version Any - tested with release 1.18.0-9h.tiny.

#!/usr/local/bin/a68g --script #

STRING str="upraisers";
printf(($gl$,
  str,                      # remove no characters #
  str[LWB str+1:         ], # remove the first character #
  str[         :UPB str-1], # remove the last character #
  str[LWB str+1:UPB str-1], # remove both the first and last character #
  str[LWB str+2:         ], # remove the first 2 characters #
  str[         :UPB str-2], # remove the last 2 characters #
  str[LWB str+1:UPB str-2], # remove 1 before and 2 after #
  str[LWB str+2:UPB str-1], # remove 2 before and one after #
  str[LWB str+2:UPB str-2]  # remove both the first and last 2 characters #
))

Output:

upraisers
praisers
upraiser
praiser
raisers
upraise
praise
raiser
raise

Amazing Hopper

#include <hopper.h>
#proto showmessage(_X_)
main:
  s="message", t=s
  ++s, _show message(s)
  s=t
  --s, _show message(s)
  ++s, _show message(s)
{0}return

.locals
showmessage(_S_)
  {_S_,"\n"}print
back

Output:

essage
messag
essag

Apex

String strOrig = 'brooms';
String str1 = strOrig.substring(1, strOrig.length());
system.debug(str1);
String str2 = strOrig.substring(0, strOrig.length()-1);
system.debug(str2);
String str3 = strOrig.substring(1, strOrig.length()-1);
system.debug(str3);

// Regular Expressions approach
String strOrig = 'brooms';
String str1 = strOrig.replaceAll( '^.', '' );
system.debug(str1);
String str2 = strOrig.replaceAll( '.$', '' ) ;
system.debug(str2);
String str3 = strOrig.replaceAll( '^.|.$', '' );
system.debug(str3);

Output:

rooms

broom

room

AppleScript

set aString to "This is some text"

set stringLength to (count aString) -- The number of characters in the text.

-- AppleScript indices are 1-based. Ranges can be specified in several different ways.
if (stringLength > 1) then
    set substring1 to text 2 thru stringLength of aString
    -- set substring1 to text 2 thru -1 of aString
    -- set substring1 to text 2 thru end of aString
    -- set substring1 to text from character 2 to character stringLength of aString
    -- set substring1 to aString's text from 2 to -1
    -- Some combination of the above.
else
    set substring1 to ""
end if

if (stringLength > 1) then
    set substring2 to text 1 thru -2 of aString
else
    set substring2 to ""
end if

if (stringLength > 2) then
    set substring3 to text 2 thru -2 of aString
else
    set substring3 to ""
end if

return substring1 & linefeed & substring2 & linefeed & substring3

Output:

"his is some text
This is some tex
his is some tex"

Arturo

knight: "knight"
socks: "socks"
brooms: "brooms"

print drop knight.                      ; strip first character
print slice knight 1 (size knight)-1    ; alternate way to strip first character

print chop socks                        ; strip last character
print take socks (size socks)-1         ; alternate way to strip last character
print slice socks 0 (size socks)-2      ; yet another way to strip last character

print chop drop brooms                  ; strip both first and last characters
print slice brooms 1 (size brooms)-2    ; alternate way to strip both first and last characters

Output:

night
night
sock
sock
sock
room
room

AutoHotkey

myString := "knights"
MsgBox % SubStr(MyString, 2)
MsgBox % SubStr(MyString, 1, StrLen(MyString)-1)
MsgBox % SubStr(MyString, 2, StrLen(MyString)-2)

AWK

BEGIN {
  mystring="knights"
  print substr(mystring,2)                       # remove the first letter
  print substr(mystring,1,length(mystring)-1)    # remove the last character
  print substr(mystring,2,length(mystring)-2)    # remove both the first and last character
}

BASIC

10 PRINT FN F$("KNIGHTS"): REM STRIP THE FIRST LETTER
20 PRINT FN L$("SOCKS"): REM STRIP THE LAST LETTER
30 PRINT FN B$("BROOMS"): REM STRIP BOTH THE FIRST AND LAST LETTER
100 END
 
9000 DEF FN F$(A$)=RIGHT$(A$,LEN(A$)-1)
9010 DEF FN L$(A$)=LEFT$(A$,LEN(A$)-1)
9020 DEF FN B$(A$)=FN L$(FN F$(A$))

Applesoft BASIC

10 s$ = "Rosetta Code"
20 PRINT s$
30 PRINT MID$(s$,2)           
40 PRINT LEFT$(s$,LEN(s$)-1)  
50 PRINT MID$(s$,2,LEN(s$)-2)

Chipmunk Basic

Works with: Chipmunk Basic version 3.6.4

10 s$ = "Rosetta Code"
20 print s$
30 print mid$(s$,2)'strip first
40 print left$(s$,len(s$)-1)'strip last
50 print mid$(s$,2,len(s$)-2)'strip first and last

MSX Basic

Works with: GW-BASIC

10 S$ = "Rosetta Code"
20 PRINT S$
30 PRINT MID$(S$, 2)              'strip first
40 PRINT LEFT$(S$, LEN(S$) - 1)   'strip last
50 PRINT MID$(S$, 2, LEN(S$) - 2) 'strip first and last

QBasic

Works with: QBasic version 1.1

Works with: QuickBasic version 4.5

s$ = "Rosetta Code"

PRINT s$
PRINT MID$(s$, 2)               'strip first
PRINT LEFT$(s$, LEN(s$) - 1)    'strip last
PRINT MID$(s$, 2, LEN(s$) - 2)  'strip first and last

BASIC256

s$ = "Rosetta Code"

print s$
PRINT MID$(s$, 2)               'strip first
PRINT LEFT$(s$, LEN(s$) - 1)    'strip last
PRINT MID$(s$, 2, LEN(s$) - 2)  'strip first and last

True BASIC

LET s$ = "Rosetta Code"
PRINT s$
PRINT (s$)[2:maxnum]              !strip first
PRINT (s$)[1:len(s$)-1]           !strip last
PRINT (s$)[2:2+len(s$)-2-1]       !strip first and last
END

XBasic

Works with: Windows XBasic

PROGRAM	"Substring"
VERSION	"0.0000"

DECLARE FUNCTION  Entry ()

FUNCTION  Entry ()
s$ = "Rosetta Code"

PRINT s$
PRINT MID$(s$, 2)               'strip first
PRINT LEFT$(s$, LEN(s$) - 1)    'strip last
PRINT MID$(s$, 2, LEN(s$) - 2)  'strip first and last

END FUNCTION
END PROGRAM

Yabasic

s$ = "Rosetta Code"

print s$
PRINT MID$(s$, 2)               'strip first
PRINT LEFT$(s$, LEN(s$) - 1)    'strip last
PRINT MID$(s$, 2, LEN(s$) - 2)  'strip first and last

IS-BASIC

100 LET S$="Knights"
110 PRINT S$(2:)
120 PRINT S$(:LEN(S$)-1)
130 PRINT S$(2:LEN(S$)-1)

Sinclair ZX81 BASIC

Note that strings are indexed from 1.

10 REM STRING SLICING EXAMPLE
20 LET S$="KNIGHTS"
30 REM WITH FIRST CHARACTER REMOVED:
40 PRINT S$(2 TO )
50 REM WITH LAST CHARACTER REMOVED:
60 PRINT S$( TO LEN S$-1)
70 REM WITH BOTH REMOVED:
80 PRINT S$(2 TO LEN S$-1)

Output:

NIGHTS
KNIGHT
NIGHT

Microsoft Small Basic

When I tried using Unicode characters, it printed question marks, though ASCII works fine.

string = "Small Basic"
TextWindow.WriteLine(Text.GetSubTextToEnd(string, 2)) 'Without the first character
TextWindow.WriteLine(Text.GetSubText(string, 1, Text.GetLength(string) - 1)) 'Without the last character
TextWindow.WriteLine(Text.GetSubText(string, 2, Text.GetLength(string) - 2)) 'Without the first and last characters

Output:

mall Basic
Small Basi
mall Basi

BQN

Drop(↓) is the main function used here.

  str ← "substring"
"substring"
  1↓str
"ubstring"
  ¯1↓str
"substrin"
  1↓¯1↓str
"ubstrin"

BBC BASIC

      s$ = "Rosetta Code"
      PRINT MID$(s$, 2)
      PRINT LEFT$(s$)
      PRINT LEFT$(MID$(s$, 2))

Bracmat

Bracmat uses UTF-8 internally. The function utf fails if its argument isn't a valid UTF-8 multibyte string, but in two slightly different ways: an indefinite and a definite way. If the argument does not have the required number of bytes but otherwise seems to be ok, Bracmat's backtacking mechanism lenghtens the argument and then calls utf again. This is repeated until utf either succeeds or definitely fails. The code is far from efficient.

(substringUTF-8=
  @( Δημοτική
   : (%?a&utf$!a) ?"String with first character removed"
   )
& @( Δημοτική
   : ?"String with last character removed" (?z&utf$!z)
   )
& @( Δημοτική
   :   (%?a&utf$!a)
       ?"String with both the first and last characters removed"
       (?z&utf$!z)
   )
&   out
  $ ("String with first character removed:" !"String with first character removed")
&   out
  $ ("String with last character removed:" !"String with last character removed")
&   out
  $ ( "String with both the first and last characters removed:"
      !"String with both the first and last characters removed"
    ));

!substringUTF-8
String with first character removed: ημοτική
String with last character removed: Δημοτικ
String with both the first and last characters removed: ημοτικ

If the string is known to consist of 8-byte characters, we can use a simpler method. Essential are the % and @ prefixes. The % prefix matches 1 or more elements (bytes, in the case of string pattern matching), while @ matches 0 or 1 elements. In combination these prefixes match 1 and only 1 byte.

(substring-8-bit=
  @("8-bit string":%@ ?"String with first character removed")
& @("8-bit string":?"String with last character removed" @)
& @( "8-bit string"
   : %@ ?"String with both the first and last characters removed" @
   )
&   out
  $ ("String with first character removed:" !"String with first character removed")
&   out
  $ ("String with last character removed:" !"String with last character removed")
&   out
  $ ( "String with both the first and last characters removed:"
      !"String with both the first and last characters removed"
    ));

!substring-8-bit
String with first character removed: -bit string
String with last character removed: 8-bit strin
String with both the first and last characters removed: -bit strin

Burlesque

blsq ) "RosettaCode"[-
"osettaCode"
blsq ) "RosettaCode"-]
'R
blsq ) "RosettaCode"~]
"RosettaCod"
blsq ) "RosettaCode"[~
'e
blsq ) "RosettaCode"~-
"osettaCod"

C

#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main( int argc, char ** argv ){
  const char * str_a = "knight";
  const char * str_b = "socks";
  const char * str_c = "brooms";

  char * new_a = malloc( strlen( str_a ) - 1 );
  char * new_b = malloc( strlen( str_b ) - 1 );
  char * new_c = malloc( strlen( str_c ) - 2 );

  strcpy( new_a, str_a + 1 );
  strncpy( new_b, str_b, strlen( str_b ) - 1 );
  strncpy( new_c, str_c + 1, strlen( str_c ) - 2 );

  printf( "%s\n%s\n%s\n", new_a, new_b, new_c );

  free( new_a );
  free( new_b );
  free( new_c );

  return 0;
}

Result:

night
sock
room

ANSI C provides little functionality for text manipulation outside of string.h. While a number of libraries for this purpose have been written, this example uses only ANSI C.

C#

using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string testString = "test";
        Console.WriteLine(testString.Substring(1));
        Console.WriteLine(testString.Substring(0, testString.Length - 1));
        Console.WriteLine(testString.Substring(1, testString.Length - 2));
    }
}

Result:

est
tes
es

C++

#include <string>
#include <iostream>

int main( ) {
   std::string word( "Premier League" ) ;
   std::cout << "Without first letter: " << word.substr( 1 ) << " !\n" ;
   std::cout << "Without last letter: " << word.substr( 0 , word.length( ) - 1 ) << " !\n" ;
   std::cout << "Without first and last letter: " << word.substr( 1 , word.length( ) - 2 ) << " !\n" ;
   return 0 ;
}

Output:

Without first letter: remier League !
Without last letter: Premier Leagu !
Without first and last letter: remier Leagu !

Clojure

; using substring:
user=> (subs "knight" 1)
"night"
user=> (subs "socks" 0 4)
"sock"
user=> (.substring "brooms" 1 5)
"room"

; using rest and drop-last:
user=> (apply str (rest "knight"))
"night"
user=> (apply str (drop-last "socks"))
"sock"
user=> (apply str (rest (drop-last "brooms")))
"room"

COBOL

       identification division.
       program-id. toptail.

       data division.
       working-storage section.
       01 data-field.
          05 value "[this is a test]".

       procedure division.
       sample-main.
       display data-field
      *> Using reference modification, which is (start-position:length)
       display data-field(2:)
       display data-field(1:length of data-field - 1)
       display data-field(2:length of data-field - 2)
       goback.
       end program toptail.

Output:

prompt$ cobc -xj toptail.cob
[this is a test]
this is a test]
[this is a test
this is a test

Common Lisp

subseq will signal an error if you provide invalid start or end values.

> (defvar *str* "∀Ꮺ✤Л◒")
*STR*
> (subseq *str* 1) ; remove first character
"Ꮺ✤Л◒"
> (subseq *str* 0 (1- (length *str*))) ; remove last character
"∀Ꮺ✤Л"
> (subseq *str* 1 (1- (length *str*))) ; remove first and last character
"Ꮺ✤Л"

D

Version for ASCII strings or Unicode dstrings:

import std.stdio;

void main() {
    // strip first character
    writeln("knight"[1 .. $]);

    // strip last character
    writeln("socks"[0 .. $ - 1]);

    // strip both first and last characters
    writeln("brooms"[1 .. $ - 1]);
}

Output:

night
sock
room

Dart

void main() {
  String word = "Premier League";
  print("Without first letter: ${word.substring(1)} !");
  print("Without last letter: ${word.substring(0, word.length - 1)} !");
  print("Without first and last letter: ${word.substring(1, word.length - 1)} !");
}

Output:

Same as C++ entry.

Delphi

program TopAndTail;

{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}

const
  TEST_STRING = '1234567890';
begin
  Writeln(TEST_STRING);                                    // full string
  Writeln(Copy(TEST_STRING, 2, Length(TEST_STRING)));      // first character removed
  Writeln(Copy(TEST_STRING, 1, Length(TEST_STRING) - 1));  // last character removed
  Writeln(Copy(TEST_STRING, 2, Length(TEST_STRING) - 2));  // first and last characters removed

  Readln;
end.

EasyLang

s$ = "Easylang"
print substr s$ 1 (len s$ - 1)
print substr s$ 2 (len s$ - 1)
print substr s$ 2 (len s$ - 2)

Output:

Easylan
asylang
asylan

Ecstasy

Generally, extracting substrings in Ecstasy is most easily performed using the slice operator, but there is also a substring() method:

module Substrings {
    void run(String[] args = []) {
        String s = args.size > 0 ? args[0] : "hello";
        @Inject Console console;
        console.print(
            $|Original    : { s                                 .quoted()=}
             |Remove first: { s.substring(1)                    .quoted()=}
             |Remove first: {(s.size < 1 ? "" : s[1..<s.size  ]).quoted()=}
             |Remove last : {(s.size < 1 ? "" : s[0..<s.size-1]).quoted()=}
             |Remove both : {(s.size < 2 ? "" : s[1..<s.size-1]).quoted()=}
        );
    }
}

Output:

x$ xec Substrings
Original    :  s                                 .quoted()="hello"
Remove first:  s.substring(1)                    .quoted()="ello"
Remove first: (s.size < 1 ? "" : s[1..<s.size  ]).quoted()="ello"
Remove last : (s.size < 1 ? "" : s[0..<s.size-1]).quoted()="hell"
Remove both : (s.size < 2 ? "" : s[1..<s.size-1]).quoted()="ell"
x$ xec Substrings a
Original    :  s                                 .quoted()="a"
Remove first:  s.substring(1)                    .quoted()=""
Remove first: (s.size < 1 ? "" : s[1..<s.size  ]).quoted()=""
Remove last : (s.size < 1 ? "" : s[0..<s.size-1]).quoted()=""
Remove both : (s.size < 2 ? "" : s[1..<s.size-1]).quoted()=""
x$ xec Substrings ab
Original    :  s                                 .quoted()="ab"
Remove first:  s.substring(1)                    .quoted()="b"
Remove first: (s.size < 1 ? "" : s[1..<s.size  ]).quoted()="b"
Remove last : (s.size < 1 ? "" : s[0..<s.size-1]).quoted()="a"
Remove both : (s.size < 2 ? "" : s[1..<s.size-1]).quoted()=""
x$ xec Substrings abc
Original    :  s                                 .quoted()="abc"
Remove first:  s.substring(1)                    .quoted()="bc"
Remove first: (s.size < 1 ? "" : s[1..<s.size  ]).quoted()="bc"
Remove last : (s.size < 1 ? "" : s[0..<s.size-1]).quoted()="ab"
Remove both : (s.size < 2 ? "" : s[1..<s.size-1]).quoted()="b"

ed

On the example of "knight".

# by Artyom Bologov
H
t0
t0
1s/.\(.*\)/\1/
2s/\(.*\)./\1/
3s/.\(.*\)./\1/
,p
Q

Output:

$ ed -s top-and-tail.input < top-and-tail.ed
Newline appended
night
knigh
nigh

Eero

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main()
  autoreleasepool

    s := 'knight'
    Log( '%@', s[1 .. s.length-1] )  // strip first character

    s = 'socks'
    Log( '%@', s[0 .. s.length-2] )  // strip last character
   
    s = 'brooms'   
    Log( '%@', s[1 .. s.length-2] )  // strip both first and last characters

    s = 'Δημοτική'   
    Log( '%@', s[1 .. s.length-2] )  // strip both first and last characters

  return 0

Output:

2013-09-04 17:08:09.453 a.out[2257:507] night
2013-09-04 17:08:09.454 a.out[2257:507] sock
2013-09-04 17:08:09.454 a.out[2257:507] room
2013-09-04 17:08:09.455 a.out[2257:507] ημοτικ

Elena

ELENA 4.x :

import extensions;
 
public program()
{
    var testString := "test";
 
    console.printLine(testString.Substring(1));
    console.printLine(testString.Substring(0, testString.Length - 1));
    console.printLine(testString.Substring(1, testString.Length - 2))
}

Output:

est
tes
es

Elixir

iex(1)> str = "abcdefg"
"abcdefg"
iex(2)> String.slice(str, 1..-1)
"bcdefg"
iex(3)> String.slice(str, 0..-2)
"abcdef"
iex(4)> String.slice(str, 1..-2)
"bcdef"

Emacs Lisp

(let ((string "top and tail"))
  (substring string 1) ;=> "op and tail"
  (substring string 0 (1- (length string))) ;=> "top and tai"
  (substring string 1 (1- (length string)))) ;=> "op and tai"

Erlang

1> Str = "Hello".
"Hello"
2> string:sub_string(Str, 2).                   % To strip the string from the right by 1
"ello"
3> string:sub_string(Str, 1, length(Str)-1).    % To strip the string from the left by 1
"Hell"
4> string:sub_string(Str, 2, length(Str)-1).    % To strip the string from both sides by 1
"ell"

Euphoria

function strip_first(sequence s)
    return s[2..$]
end function

function strip_last(sequence s)
    return s[1..$-1]
end function

function strip_both(sequence s)
    return s[2..$-1]
end function

puts(1, strip_first("knight"))  -- strip first character
puts(1, strip_last("write"))    -- strip last character
puts(1, strip_both("brooms"))   -- strip both first and last characters

F#

[<EntryPoint>]
let main args =
    let s = "一二三四五六七八九十"
    printfn "%A" (s.Substring(1))
    printfn "%A" (s.Substring(0, s.Length - 1))
    printfn "%A" (s.Substring(1, s.Length - 2))
    0

Output

"二三四五六七八九十"
"一二三四五六七八九"
"二三四五六七八九"

Factor

USING: io kernel sequences ;
"Rosetta code" [ rest ] [ but-last ] [ rest but-last ] tri
[ print ] tri@

Output:

osetta code
Rosetta cod
osetta cod

Forth

In Forth, strings typically take up two cells on the stack, diagrammed ( c-addr u ), with C-ADDR the address of the string and U its length. Dropping leading and trailing characters then involves simple mathematical operations on the address or length, without mutating or copying the string.

: hello ( -- c-addr u )
  s" Hello" ;  

hello 1 /string type     \ => ello

hello 1- type            \ => hell

hello 1 /string 1- type  \ => ell

This works for ASCII, and a slight variation (2 instead of 1 per character) will suffice for BIG5, GB2312, and like, but Unicode-general code can use +X/STRING and X\STRING- from Forth-200x's XCHAR wordset.

Fortran

program substring

  character(len=5) :: string
  string = "Hello"
  
  write (*,*) string
  write (*,*) string(2:)
  write (*,*) string( :len(string)-1)
  write (*,*) string(2:len(string)-1)

end program substring

FreeBASIC

' FB 1.05.0 Win64

Dim s As String  = "panda"
Dim s1 As String = Mid(s, 2)
Dim s2 As String = Left(s, Len(s) - 1)
Dim s3 As String = Mid(s, 2, Len(s) - 2)
Print s
Print s1
Print s2
Print s3
Sleep

Output:

panda
anda
pand
and

FutureBasic

void local fn DoIt
  CFStringRef s = @"knights"
  print s
  CFStringRef s1 = mid(s, 1, len(s) - 1)
  print s1
  CFStringRef s2 = left(s,   len(s) - 1)
  print s2
  CFStringRef s3 = mid(s, 1, len(s) - 2)
  print s3
end fn

fn DoIt

HandleEvents

Output:

knights
nighs
knight
night

Go

Go strings are byte arrays that can hold whatever you want them to hold. Common contents are ASCII and UTF-8. You use different techniques depending on how you are interpreting the string. The utf8 package functions shown here allows efficient extraction of first and last runes without decoding the entire string.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "unicode/utf8"
)

func main() {
    // ASCII contents:  Interpreting "characters" as bytes.
    s := "ASCII"
    fmt.Println("String:                ", s)
    fmt.Println("First byte removed:    ", s[1:])
    fmt.Println("Last byte removed:     ", s[:len(s)-1])
    fmt.Println("First and last removed:", s[1:len(s)-1])
    // UTF-8 contents:  "Characters" as runes (unicode code points)
    u := "Δημοτική"
    fmt.Println("String:                ", u)
    _, sizeFirst := utf8.DecodeRuneInString(u)
    fmt.Println("First rune removed:    ", u[sizeFirst:])
    _, sizeLast := utf8.DecodeLastRuneInString(u)
    fmt.Println("Last rune removed:     ", u[:len(u)-sizeLast])
    fmt.Println("First and last removed:", u[sizeFirst:len(u)-sizeLast])
}

Output:

String:                 ASCII
First byte removed:     SCII
Last byte removed:      ASCI
First and last removed: SCI
String:                 Δημοτική
First rune removed:     ημοτική
Last rune removed:      Δημοτικ
First and last removed: ημοτικ

Golfscript

When I tried using Unicode characters, the interpreter generated a mess, though ASCII works fine.

"Golfscript"(;n
"Golfscript");n
"Golfscript"(;);

Output:

olfscript
Golfscrip
olfscrip

Groovy

Solution:

def top  = { it.size() > 1 ? it[0..-2] : '' }
def tail = { it.size() > 1 ? it[1..-1] : '' }

Test:

def testVal = 'upraisers'
println """
original: ${testVal}
top:      ${top(testVal)}
tail:     ${tail(testVal)}
top&tail: ${tail(top(testVal))}
"""

Output:

original: upraisers
top:      upraiser
tail:     praisers
top&tail: praiser

GW-BASIC

10 A$="knight":B$="socks":C$="brooms"
20 PRINT MID$(A$,2)
30 PRINT LEFT$(B$,LEN(B$)-1)
40 PRINT MID$(C$,2,LEN(C$)-2)

Haskell

-- We define the functions to return an empty string if the argument is too
-- short for the particular operation.

remFirst, remLast, remBoth :: String -> String

remFirst "" = ""
remFirst cs = tail cs

remLast "" = ""
remLast cs = init cs

remBoth (c:cs) = remLast cs
remBoth  _     = ""

main :: IO ()
main = do
  let s = "Some string."  
  mapM_ (\f -> putStrLn . f $ s) [remFirst, remLast, remBoth]

Alternative solution with builtin functions:

word = "knights"

main = do
    -- You can drop the first item
    -- using `tail`
    putStrLn (tail word)

    -- The `init` function will drop
    -- the last item
    putStrLn (init word)

    -- We can combine these two to drop
    -- the last and the first characters
    putStrLn (middle word)

-- You can combine functions using `.`,
-- which is pronounced "compose" or "of"
middle = init . tail

In short:

main :: IO ()
main = mapM_ print $ [tail, init, init . tail] <*> ["knights"]

Output:

"nights"
"knight"
"night"

Icon and Unicon

The task is accomplished by sub-stringing.

procedure main()
write(s := "knight"," --> ", s[2:0])  # drop 1st char
write(s := "sock"," --> ", s[1:-1])   # drop last
write(s := "brooms"," --> ", s[2:-1]) # drop both
end

It could also be accomplished (less clearly) by assigning into the string as below. Very awkward for both front and back.

write(s := "knight"," --> ", s[1] := "", s)  # drop 1st char

J

The monadic primitives }. (Behead) and }: (Curtail) are useful for this task.

Example use:

   }. 'knight'      NB. drop first item
night
   }: 'socks'       NB. drop last item
sock
   }: }. 'brooms'   NB. drop first and last items
room

Java

I solve this problem two ways. First I use substring which is relatively fast for small strings, since it simply grabs the characters within a set of given bounds. The second uses regular expressions, which have a higher overhead for such short strings, but work correctly with all Unicode code points, not just those in the Basic Multilingual Plane.

public class RM_chars {
  public static void main( String[] args ){
    System.out.println( "knight".substring( 1 ) );
    System.out.println( "socks".substring( 0, 4 ) );
    System.out.println( "brooms".substring( 1, 5 ) );
      // first, do this by selecting a specific substring
      // to exclude the first and last characters
    
    System.out.println( "knight".replaceAll( "^.", "" ) );
    System.out.println( "socks".replaceAll( ".$", "" ) );
    System.out.println( "brooms".replaceAll( "^.|.$", "" ) );
      // then do this using a regular expressions
  }
}

Results:

night
sock
room
night
sock
room

Nearly all current solutions for this task fail to work correctly: the task says "The program must reference logical characters (code points), not 8-bit code units for UTF-8 or 16-bit code units for UTF-16." The code below works correctly with all Unicode characters, without using regular expressions as the above program does.

public class SubstringTopAndTail {
  public static void main( String[] args ){
    var s = "\uD83D\uDC0Eabc\uD83D\uDC0E";  // Horse emoji, a, b, c, horse emoji: "🐎abc🐎"

    var sizeOfFirstChar = Character.isSurrogate(s.charAt(0)) ? 2 : 1;
    var sizeOfLastChar = Character.isSurrogate(s.charAt(s.length() - 1)) ? 2 : 1;

    var removeFirst = s.substring(sizeOfFirstChar);
    var removeLast = s.substring(0, s.length() - sizeOfLastChar);
    var removeBoth = s.substring(sizeOfFirstChar, s.length() - sizeOfLastChar);

    System.out.println(removeFirst);
    System.out.println(removeLast);
    System.out.println(removeBoth);
  }
}

Results:

abc🐎
🐎abc
abc

JavaScript

alert("knight".slice(1));       // strip first character
alert("socks".slice(0, -1));    // strip last character
alert("brooms".slice(1, -1));   // strip both first and last characters

Joy

DEFINE
  dropfirst == 1 drop;
  droplast == dup size pred take.

"abcd" dropfirst.
"abcd" droplast.
"abcd" dropfirst droplast.

If a string is known to be non-empty, the rest operator could be used instead of dropfirst.

Output:

"bcd"
"abc"
"bc"

jq

jq uses 0-based indexing, so [1:] yields all but the first character, it being understood that data strings in jq are JSON strings. [0:-1], which can be abbreviated to [:-1], yields all but the last character, and so on. Here are some examples:

"一二三四五六七八九十"[1:]' => "二三四五六七八九十"

"一二三四五六七八九十"[:-1]' => "一二三四五六七八九"

"一二三四五六七八九十"[1:-1]' => "二三四五六七八九"

"a"[1:-1] # => ""

Recent versions of jq also have regular expression support, with named captures. This leads to many other possibilities, e.g.

"abc" | capture( ".(?<monkey>.*)." ).monkey => "b"

Julia

julia> "My String"[2:end] # without first character
"y String"

julia> "My String"[1:end-1] # without last character
"My Strin"

julia> "My String"[2:end-1] # without first and last characters
"y Strin"

K

K provides the system function _di to delete an element at a specified index. The following code is implemented using this feature.

    s: "1234567890"
"1234567890"
    s _di 0 /Delete 1st character
"234567890"
    s _di -1+#s /Delete last character
"123456789"
    (s _di -1+#s) _di 0 /String with both 1st and last character removed
"23456789"

Another way to implement without using the above system function:

    s: "1234567890"
"1234567890"
    1 _ s  /Delete 1st character
"234567890"
    -1 _ s /Delete last character
"123456789"
    1 - -1 _ s /Delete 1st and last character
"23456789"

Kotlin

// version 1.0.6
fun main(args: Array<String>) {
    val s = "Rosetta"
    println(s.drop(1))
    println(s.dropLast(1))
    println(s.drop(1).dropLast(1))
}

Output:

osetta
Rosett
osett

Lambdatalk

{def R rosetta}                               -> rosetta

{W.rest {R}}                                  ->  osetta
{W.reverse {W.rest {W.reverse {R}}}}          -> rosett
{W.rest {W.reverse {W.rest {W.reverse {R}}}}} ->  osett

or 

{W.slice 1 {W.length {R}} {R}}                ->  osetta
{W.slice 0 {- {W.length {R}} 1} {R}}          -> rosett
{W.slice 1 {- {W.length {R}} 1} {R}}          ->  osett

{def J ストリング}                              -> ストリング

{W.rest {J}}                                  ->   トリング
{W.reverse {W.rest {W.reverse {J}}}}          -> ストリン
{W.rest {W.reverse {W.rest {W.reverse {J}}}}} ->   トリン

Lasso

local(str = 'The quick grey rhino jumped over the lazy green fox.')

// String with first character removed
string_remove(#str,-startposition=1,-endposition=1)

// String with last character removed
string_remove(#str,-startposition=#str->size,-endposition=#str->size)

// String with both the first and last characters removed
string_remove(string_remove(#str,-startposition=#str->size,-endposition=#str->size),-startposition=1,-endposition=1)

Output:

he quick grey rhino jumped over the lazy green fox.
The quick grey rhino jumped over the lazy green fox
he quick grey rhino jumped over the lazy green fox

local(mystring = 'ÅÜÄÖカ')

#mystring -> remove(1,1)
#mystring
'<br />'
#mystring -> remove(#mystring -> size,1)
#mystring
'<br />'
#mystring -> remove(1,1)& -> remove(#mystring -> size,1)
#mystring

-> ÜÄÖカ

ÜÄÖ

Ä ==Lasso ==

local(str = 'The quick grey rhino jumped over the lazy green fox.')

// String with first character removed
string_remove(#str,-startposition=1,-endposition=1)
// > he quick grey rhino jumped over the lazy green fox.

// String with last character removed
string_remove(#str,-startposition=#str->size,-endposition=#str->size)
// > The quick grey rhino jumped over the lazy green fox

// String with both the first and last characters removed
string_remove(string_remove(#str,-startposition=#str->size,-endposition=#str->size),-startposition=1,-endposition=1)
// > he quick grey rhino jumped over the lazy green fox

Liberty BASIC

string$ = "Rosetta Code"
Print Mid$(string$, 2)
Print Left$(string$, (Len(string$) - 1))
Print Mid$(string$, 2, (Len(string$) - 2))

LiveCode

put "pple" into x
answer char 2 to len(x) of x // pple
answer char 1 to -2 of x  // ppl
answer char 2 to -2 of x // ppl

Locomotive Basic

10 a$="knight":b$="socks":c$="brooms"
20 PRINT MID$(a$,2)
30 PRINT LEFT$(b$,LEN(b$)-1)
40 PRINT MID$(c$,2,LEN(c$)-2)

Logo

make "s "|My string|
print butfirst :s
print butlast :s
print butfirst butlast :s

Logtalk

Using atoms for representing strings:

:- object(top_and_tail).

    :- public(test/1).
    test(String) :-
        sub_atom(String, 1, _, 0, MinusTop),
        write('String with first character cut: '), write(MinusTop), nl,
        sub_atom(String, 0, _, 1, MinusTail),
        write('String with last character cut: '), write(MinusTail), nl,
        sub_atom(String, 1, _, 1, MinusTopAndTail),
        write('String with first and last characters cut: '), write(MinusTopAndTail), nl.

:- end_object.

Sample output:

| ?- top_and_tail::test('Rosetta').
String with first character cut: osetta
String with last character cut: Rosett
String with first and last characters cut: osett
yes

Lua

print (string.sub("knights",2))    -- remove the first character
print (string.sub("knights",1,-2))    -- remove the last character
print (string.sub("knights",2,-2))    -- remove the first and last characters

Maple

There are several ways to do this. The first is, I think, the simplest.

> s := "some string":
> s[2..-1];
                              "ome string"

> s[1..-2];
                              "some strin"

> s[2..-2];
                              "ome strin"

The same functionality exists in the form of a procedure:

> substring( s, 2 .. -1 );
                              "ome string"

> substring( s, 1 .. -2 );
                              "some strin"

> substring( s, 2 .. -2 );
                              "ome strin"

Furthermore, there is a slightly different version in the "StringTools" package:

> use StringTools in
>     SubString( s, 2 .. -1 );
>     SubString( s, 1 .. -1 );
>     SubString( s, 2 .. -2 ) 
> end use;
                              "ome string"

                             "some string"

                              "ome strin"

(The difference between "substring" and "StringTools:-SubString" lies in how each treats a name as input; the former returns a name, while the latter returns a string.)

Mathematica /Wolfram Language

StringDrop["input string",1]
StringDrop["input string",-1]
StringTake["input string",{2,-2}]

MATLAB / Octave

The following case will not handle UTF-8. However, Matlab supports conversion of utf-8 to utf-16 using native2unicode().

 
    % String with first character removed
    str(2:end)
    % String with last character removed
    str(1:end-1)
    % String with both the first and last characters removed 
    str(2:end-1)

MiniScript

test = "This thing"
print test[1:]
print test[:-1]
print test[1:-1]

Output:

his thing
This thin
his thin

MIPS Assembly

Thanks to Chibialiens for the header/footer, font, and print routines.

.include "\SrcAll\Header.asm"
.include "\SrcAll\BasicMacros.asm"
.include "\SrcALL\AdvancedMacros.asm"
.include "\SrcALL\MemoryMap.asm"

; .definelabel UserRam,0xA0010000		(this is defined in the header)

CursorX equ 0x100 ;offset from label UserRam
CursorY equ 0x101 ;offset from label UserRam

main:
	jal Cls
	nop
	
	la a0,MyString
	la a1,UserRam+0x1000
	push a0
	push a1
		jal strcpy
		addiu a0,1		;branch delay slot - increment base address prior to branching
	pop a0				;deliberately pop in the "wrong order"
	pop a1				;because printString uses $a0
	
	jal PrintString
	nop
	jal NewLine
	nop
	
	
	
	la a0,MyString
	la a1,UserRam+0x1000
	
	push a0
	push a1
		jal strcpy
		nop				;branch delay slot
		;after a strcpy, a0/a1 both point to the null terminator
		subiu a1,1
		move t0,zero
		sb t0,(a1)
		.ifdef buildPSX
			nop		;load delay slot
		.endif
	pop a0
	pop a1
	
	jal PrintString
	nop
	jal NewLine
	nop
	
	la a0,MyString
	la a1,UserRam+0x1000
	
	push a0
	push a1
		jal strcpy
		addiu a0,1	;branch delay slot
		;after a strcpy, a0/a1 both point to the null terminator
		subiu a1,1
		move t0,zero
		sb t0,(a1)
		.ifdef buildPSX
			nop		;load delay slot
		.endif
	pop a0
	pop a1
	
	jal PrintString
	nop
	jal NewLine
	nop
	
	
halt:
	nop
	j halt
	nop
	
	
MyString:
	.ascii "Hello World"
	.byte 0
	.align 4
	
MyFont:

.ifdef buildn64				
	.incbin "\ResN64\ChibiAkumas.fnt"
.endif
.ifdef buildPSX				
	.incbin "\ResPSX\ChibiAkumas.fnt"
.endif

.include "\SrcALL\graphics.asm"
.include "\SrcAll\monitor.asm"
.include "\SrcALL\Multiplatform_Math_Integer.asm"
.include "\SrcALL\BasicFunctions_v2.asm"
.include "\SrcN64\Footer.asm"

Output:

ello World
Hello Worl
ello Worl

Screenshot of PlayStation 1 Emulator

Neko

Neko strings are mutable, fixed length buffers. The $ssize builtin uses the allocated size, not any internal sentinel terminator byte. With literals, the allocated size is the size of the data between quotes, i.e. no NUL byte appended.

$ssub sub-string takes string, position (zero-relative), length arguments.

/**
 Subtring/Top-Tail in Neko
*/

var data = "[this is a test]"
var len = $ssize(data)

$print(data, "\n")
$print($ssub(data, 1, len - 1), "\n")
$print($ssub(data, 0, len - 1), "\n")
$print($ssub(data, 1, len - 2), "\n")

Output:

prompt$ nekoc toptail.neko
prompt$ neko toptail.n
[this is a test]
this is a test]
[this is a test
this is a test

Nemerle

using System;
using System.Console;

module RemoveChars
{
    Main() : void
    {
        def str = "*A string*";
        def end = str.Remove(str.Length - 1);  // from pos to end
        def beg = str.Remove(0, 1);            // start pos, # of chars to remove
        def both = str.Trim(array['*']);       // with Trim() you need to know what char's you're removing
        
        WriteLine($"$str -> $beg -> $end -> $both");
    }
}

NetRexx

/**********************************************************************
* 02.08.2013 Walter Pachl  translated from REXX
**********************************************************************/
z = 'abcdefghijk'
l=z.length()
say '                  the original string =' z
If l>=1 Then Do
  Say 'string first        character removed =' z.substr(2)
  say 'string         last character removed =' z.left(l-1)
  End
If l>=2 Then
  Say 'string first & last character removed =' z.substr(2,l-2)

NewLISP

(let (str "rosetta")
  ;; strip first char
  (println (1 str))
  ;; strip last char
  (println (0 -1 str))
  ;; strip both first and last characters
  (println (1 -1 str)))

Nim

import unicode

let s = "Hänsel  ««: 10,00€"
echo "Original: ", s
echo "With first character removed: ", s.runeSubStr(1)
echo "With last character removed: ", s.runeSubStr(0, s.runeLen - 1)
echo "With first and last characters removed: ", s.runeSubStr(1, s.runeLen - 2)
# Using the runes type and slices
let r = s.toRunes
echo "With first and last characters removed (other way): ", r[1 .. ^2]

Output:

Original: Hänsel  ««: 10,00€
With first character removed: änsel  ««: 10,00€
With last character removed: Hänsel  ««: 10,00
With first and last characters removed: änsel  ««: 10,00
With first and last characters removed (other way): änsel  ««: 10,00

Nu

Works with: Nushell version 0.96.1

[
  1..
   ..-2
  1..-2
]
| each {|range| '>test<' | str substring $range }

Output:

╭───┬───────╮
│ 0 │ test< │
│ 1 │ >test │
│ 2 │ test  │
╰───┴───────╯

Objeck

bundle Default {
   class TopTail {
      function : Main(args : System.String[]) ~ Nil {
         string := "test";
         string->SubString(1, string->Size() - 1)->PrintLine();
         string->SubString(string->Size() - 1)->PrintLine();
         string->SubString(1, string->Size() - 2)->PrintLine();
      }
   }
}

OCaml

let strip_first_char str =
  if str = "" then "" else
  String.sub str 1 ((String.length str) - 1)

let strip_last_char str =
  if str = "" then "" else
  String.sub str 0 ((String.length str) - 1)

let strip_both_chars str =
  match String.length str with
  | 0 | 1 | 2 -> ""
  | len -> String.sub str 1 (len - 2)

let () =
  print_endline (strip_first_char "knight");
  print_endline (strip_last_char "socks");
  print_endline (strip_both_chars "brooms");
;;

Oforth

: topAndTail(s)
    s right(s size 1-) println
    s left(s size 1-) println
    s extract(2, s size 1- ) println ;

Output:

topAndTail("MyString")
yString
MyStrin
yStrin

OmniMark

The following "Simple ASCII example" is limited in that it will only work where there are characters up to U+00FF in the "word", but works for most of the examples like "knight" and "brooms" (shown), which reflects most of the example text others have put to their solutions.

Simple ASCII example

process
  local stream s variable initial {'brooms', 'hit'}
  repeat over s
    output '---------------------%nWord:          %g(s)%n'
    do scan s
      match any-text any-text+ => firstremoved
        output 'First removed: %x(firstremoved)%n'
    done
    do scan s
      match ((lookahead not (any-text value-end)) any)+ => lastremoved
        output 'Last removed:  %x(lastremoved)%n'
    done
    do scan s
      match any-text ((lookahead not (any-text value-end)) any)+ => bothremoved
        output 'Both removed:  %x(bothremoved)%n'
    done
  again

Output:

---------------------
Word:          brooms
First removed: rooms
Last removed:  broom
Both removed:  room
---------------------
Word:          hit
First removed: it
Last removed:  hi
Both removed:  i

Complete, Unicode, example

This example considers the task's more complex requirements, i.e., "it must work on any valid Unicode code point, whether in the Basic Multilingual Plane [BMP] or above it". The word hit (U+0068 U+0069 U+0074) as well as 𝓱𝓲𝓽 (U+1D4F1 U+1D4F2 U+1D4FD) are handled (the latter word comprised of three characters above the BMP). Also handled is "là" (U+006C U+0061 U+0300), showing that this solution is also capable of handling combining characters like U+0300 (COMBINING GRAVE ACCENT), treating the accent as a character, which it is.

include "utf8pat.xin"

define stream function ucps (value stream chars) as
  local integer num
  local stream unicodes
  open unicodes as buffer
  repeat scan chars
    match utf8-char => s-char
      set num to utf8-char-number(s-char)
      put unicodes 'U+%u16r4fzd(num) '
  again
  close unicodes
  return unicodes

process
  local stream s variable initial {'brooms', '𝓱𝓲𝓽', 'là'}
  repeat over s
    output '----------------------------------------------------------------%n'
    output 'Word:          %g(s)%n               ' || ucps(s) || '%n'
    do scan s
      match utf8-char utf8-char+ => firstremoved
        output 'First removed: %x(firstremoved)%n               '
        output ucps(firstremoved) || '%n'
    done
    do scan s
      match ((lookahead not (utf8-char value-end)) any)+ => lastremoved
        output 'Last removed:  %x(lastremoved)%n               '
        output ucps(lastremoved) || '%n'
    done
    do scan s
      match utf8-char ((lookahead not (utf8-char value-end)) any)+ => bothremoved
        output 'Both removed:  %x(bothremoved)%n               '
        output ucps(bothremoved) || '%n'
    done
  again

Output:

----------------------------------------------------------------
Word:          hit
               U+0068 U+0069 U+0074 
First removed: it
               U+0069 U+0074 
Last removed:  hi
               U+0068 U+0069 
Both removed:  i
               U+0069 
----------------------------------------------------------------
Word:          𝓱𝓲𝓽
               U+1D4F1 U+1D4F2 U+1D4FD 
First removed: 𝓲𝓽
               U+1D4F2 U+1D4FD 
Last removed:  𝓱𝓲
               U+1D4F1 U+1D4F2 
Both removed:  𝓲
               U+1D4F2 
----------------------------------------------------------------
Word:          là
               U+006C U+0061 U+0300 
First removed: à
               U+0061 U+0300 
Last removed:  la
               U+006C U+0061 
Both removed:  a
               U+0061

PARI/GP

df(s)=concat(vecextract(Vec(s),1<<#s-2));
dl(s)=concat(vecextract(Vec(s),1<<(#s-1)-1));
db(s)=concat(vecextract(Vec(s),1<<(#s-1)-2));

Pascal

See also Delphi

Works with: Extended Pascal

program topAndTail(output);
var
	line: string(20);
begin
	line := 'ABCDEF';
	
	if length(line) > 1 then
	begin
		{ string with first character removed }
		writeLn(subStr(line, 2));
		{ index range expression: only possible for strings }
		{ _not_ designated `bindable` [e.g. `bindable string(20)`] }
		writeLn(line[2..length(line)]);
		
		{ string with last character removed }
		
		writeLn(subStr(line, 1, length(line) - 1));
		{ only legal with non-bindable strings: }
		writeLn(line[1..length(line)-1])
	end;
	
	{ string with both the first and last characters removed }
	if length(line) > 2 then
	begin
		writeLn(subStr(line, 2, length(line) - 2));
		{ only for non-bindable strings: }
		writeLn(line[2..length(line)-1])
	end
end.

It is imperative that firstCharacterIndex + substringLength specified to subStr(source, firstCharacterIndex, substringLength) must be valid index in source. Therefore you need to perform checks beforehand.

PascalABC.NET

{$zerobasedstrings}
begin
  var s := '0123456789';
  Writeln(s[1:]);
  Writeln(s[:^1]);
  Writeln(s[1:^1]);
end.

Output:

123456789
012345678
12345678

Perl

print substr("knight",1), "\n";        # strip first character
print substr("socks", 0, -1), "\n";    # strip last character
print substr("brooms", 1, -1), "\n";   # strip both first and last characters

In perl, we can also remove the last character from a string variable with the chop function:

$string = 'ouch';
$bits = chop($string);       # The last letter is returned by the chop function
print $bits;        # h
print $string;      # ouc    # See we really did chop the last letter off

Phix

Library: Phix/basics

constant s = "(test)"
?s[2..-1]
?s[1..-2]
?s[2..-2]

Output:

"test)"
"(test"
"test"

Phixmonti

include ..\Utilitys.pmt

"(test)"
dup 1 del ?
dup -1 del ?
dup 1 del -1 del ?

Or...

include ..\Utilitys.pmt

"(test)"
len 1 - 2 swap slice ?
len 1 - 1 swap slice ?
len 2 - 2 swap slice ?

PHP

<?php
echo substr("knight", 1), "\n";       // strip first character
echo substr("socks", 0, -1), "\n";    // strip last character
echo substr("brooms", 1, -1), "\n";   // strip both first and last characters
?>

Picat

Functions

go =>
  test("upraisers"),
  test("Δημοτική"),
  nl.

test(S) =>
  println(s=S),
  println(butfirst=S.slice(2)),
  println(butfirst=S.tail),
  println(butfirst=S[2..S.len]),  
  
  println(butlast=S.but_last()),
  
  println(butfirst_butlast=S.tail.but_last),
  println(butfirst_butlast=slice(S,2,S.length-1)),
  println(butfirst_butlast=[S[I] : I in 2..S.length-1]),
  println(butfirst_butlast=S[2..S.length-1]),  
  nl.

but_last(S)  = S.slice(1,S.length-1).

Output:

s = upraisers
butfirst = praisers
butfirst = praisers
butfirst = praisers
butlast = upraiser
butfirst_butlast = praiser
butfirst_butlast = praiser
butfirst_butlast = praiser
butfirst_butlast = praiser

s = Δημοτική
butfirst = ημοτική
butfirst = ημοτική
butfirst = ημοτική
butlast = Δημοτικ
butfirst_butlast = ημοτικ
butfirst_butlast = ημοτικ
butfirst_butlast = ημοτικ
butfirst_butlast = ημοτικ

Using append/3

Translation of: Prolog

go2 =>
  test2("upraisers"),
  nl,
  test2("Δημοτική"),
  nl.

test2(L) :-
    L = [_|L1],
    remove_last(L, L2),
    remove_last(L1, L3),
    writef("Original string          : %s\n", L),
    writef("Without first char       : %s\n", L1),
    writef("Without last char        : %s\n", L2),
    writef("Without first/last chars : %s\n", L3).
 
remove_last(L, LR) :-
    append(LR, [_], L).

Output:

Original string          : upraisers
Without first char       : praisers
Without last char        : upraiser
Without first/last chars : praiser

Original string          : Δημοτική
Without first char       : ημοτική
Without last char        : Δημοτικ
Without first/last chars : ημοτικ

PicoLisp

: (pack (cdr (chop "knight")))         # Remove first character
-> "night"

: (pack (head -1 (chop "socks")))      # Remove last character
-> "sock"

: (pack (cddr (rot (chop "brooms"))))  # Remove first and last characters
-> "room"

PL/I

declare s character (100) varying;
s = 'now is the time to come to the aid of the party';
if length(s) <= 2 then stop;
put skip list ('First character removed=' || substr(s,2) );
put skip list ('Last character removed='  || substr(s, 1, length(s)-1) );
put skip list ('One character from each end removed=' ||
   substr(s, 2, length(s)-2) );

OUTPUT:

First character removed=ow is the time to come to the aid of the party
Last character removed=now is the time to come to the aid of the part 
One character from each end removed=ow is the time to come to the aid of the part 

Plain English

To run:
Start up.
Demonstrate removing the first and last characters from "Rosetta Code".
Wait for the escape key.
Shut down.

To demonstrate removing the first and last characters from a string:
Slap a substring on the string.
Add 1 to the substring's first.
Write the substring on the console.
Subtract 1 from the substring's first.
Subtract 1 from the substring's last.
Write the substring on the console.
Add 1 to the substring's first.
Write the substring on the console.

Output:

osetta Code
Rosetta Cod
osetta Cod

PowerShell

Works with: PowerShell version 4.0

First method

$string = "top and tail"
$string
$string.Substring(1)
$string.Substring(0, $string.Length - 1)
$string.Substring(1, $string.Length - 2)

Second method

$string = "top and tail"
$string
$string[1..($string.Length - 1)] -join ""
$string[0..($string.Length - 2)] -join ""
$string[1..($string.Length - 2)] -join ""

Output:

top and tail
op and tail
top and tai
op and tai

Prolog

Works with SWI-Prolog.

remove_first_last_chars :-
    L = "Rosetta",
    L = [_|L1],
    remove_last(L, L2),
    remove_last(L1, L3),
    writef('Original string      : %s\n', [L]),
    writef('Without first char       : %s\n', [L1]),
    writef('Without last char        : %s\n', [L2]),
    writef('Without first/last chars : %s\n', [L3]).

remove_last(L, LR) :-
    append(LR, [_], L).

Output :

 ?- remove_first_last_chars.
Original string          : Rosetta
Without first char       : osetta
Without last char        : Rosett
Without first/last chars : osett
true.

PureBasic

If OpenConsole()  
  PrintN(Right("knight", Len("knight") - 1))  ;strip the first letter
  PrintN(Left("socks", Len("socks")- 1))      ;strip the last letter
  PrintN(Mid("brooms", 2, Len("brooms") - 2)) ;strip both the first and last letter
  
  Print(#CRLF$ + #CRLF$ + "Press ENTER to exit"): Input()
  CloseConsole()
EndIf

Sample output:

night
sock
room

Python

print "knight"[1:]     # strip first character
print "socks"[:-1]     # strip last character
print "brooms"[1:-1]   # strip both first and last characters

Or, composing atomic functional expressions for these slices:

from functools import (reduce)


def main():
    for xs in transpose(
        (chunksOf(3)(
            ap([tail, init, compose(init)(tail)])(
                ['knights', 'socks', 'brooms']
            )
        ))
    ):
        print(xs)


# GENERIC -------------------------------------------------

# tail :: [a] -> [a]
def tail(xs):
    return xs[1:]


# init::[a] - > [a]
def init(xs):
    return xs[:-1]


# ap (<*>) :: [(a -> b)] -> [a] -> [b]
def ap(fs):
    return lambda xs: reduce(
        lambda a, f: a + reduce(
            lambda a, x: a + [f(x)], xs, []
        ), fs, []
    )


# chunksOf :: Int -> [a] -> [[a]]
def chunksOf(n):
    return lambda xs: reduce(
        lambda a, i: a + [xs[i:n + i]],
        range(0, len(xs), n), []
    ) if 0 < n else []


# compose (<<<) :: (b -> c) -> (a -> b) -> a -> c
def compose(g):
    return lambda f: lambda x: g(f(x))


# transpose :: [[a]] -> [[a]]
def transpose(xs):
    return list(map(list, zip(*xs)))


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Output:

['nights', 'knight', 'night']
['ocks', 'sock', 'ock']
['rooms', 'broom', 'room']

Quackery

As a dialogue in the Quackery shell.

/O> $ "callipygian"
... say "original string:   "
... dup echo$ cr
... say "without head:      "
... dup behead drop echo$ cr
... say "without tail:      "
... -1 split drop dup echo$ cr
... say "topped and tailed: "
... behead drop echo$ cr
... 
original string:   callipygian
without head:      allipygian
without tail:      callipygia
topped and tailed: allipygia

Racket

#lang racket

(define str "ストリング")

(substring str 1)
(substring str 0 (sub1 (string-length str)))
(substring str 1 (sub1 (string-length str)))

Output:

"トリング"
"ストリン"
"トリン"

Raku

(formerly Perl 6)

Raku provides both functional and method forms of substr. Note that, unlike in Perl 5, offsets from the end do not use negative numbers, but instead require a function expressing the negative offset relative to the length parameter, which is supplied by the operator. The form *-1 is just a simple way to write such a function.

We use musical sharps and flats to illustrate that Raku is comfortable with characters from any Unicode plane.

my $s = '𝄪♯♮♭𝄫';

print qq:to/END/;
    Original:
    $s

    Remove first character:
    { substr($s, 1) }
    { $s.substr(1) }

    Remove last character:
    { substr($s, 0, *-1) }
    { $s.substr( 0, *-1) }
    { $s.chop }

    Remove first and last characters:
    { substr($s, 1, *-1) }
    { $s.substr(1, *-1) }
    END

Output:

Original:
𝄪♯♮♭𝄫

Remove first character:
♯♮♭𝄫
♯♮♭𝄫
 
Remove last character:
𝄪♯♮♭
𝄪♯♮♭
𝄪♯♮♭
 
Remove first and last characters:
♯♮♭
♯♮♭

Raven

define println use $s
   $s print "\n" print

"0123456789" as $str

define offTheTop use $s
   $s 1 0x7FFFFFFF extract

define offTheTail use $s
   $s 0 -1 extract


$str offTheTop  println
$str offTheTail println
$str offTheTop  offTheTail  println

Output:

123456789
012345678
12345678

REXX

error prone

This REXX version is error prone in that if the string is less than two characters, then the   left   and/or   substr   BIFs will fail   (because of an invalid length specified).

/*REXX program demonstrates removal of  1st/last/1st-and-last  characters from a string.*/
@ = 'abcdefghijk'
say '                  the original string ='  @
say 'string first        character removed ='  substr(@, 2)
say 'string         last character removed ='  left(@, length(@) -1)
say 'string first & last character removed ='  substr(@, 2, length(@) -2)
                                                 /*stick a fork in it,  we're all done. */
   /* ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
      ║  However, the original string may be null or exactly one byte in length which ║
      ║  will cause the  BIFs to fail because of  either zero  or  a negative length. ║
      ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ */

output

                  the original string = abcdefghijk
string first        character removed = bcdefghijk
string         last character removed = abcdefghij
string first & last character removed = bcdefghij

robust version

This REXX version correctly handles a string of zero (null) or one byte.

/*REXX program demonstrates removal of  1st/last/1st-and-last  characters from a string.*/
@ = 'abcdefghijk'
say '                  the original string ='  @
say 'string first        character removed ='  substr(@, 2)
say 'string         last character removed ='  left(@, max(0, length(@) -1))
say 'string first & last character removed ='  substr(@, 2, max(0, length(@) -2))
exit                                             /*stick a fork in it,  we're all done. */

                              /* [↓]  an easier to read version using a length variable.*/
@ = 'abcdefghijk'
L=length(@)
say '                  the original string ='  @
say 'string first        character removed ='  substr(@, 2)
say 'string         last character removed ='  left(@, max(0, L-1) )
say 'string first & last character removed ='  substr(@, 2, max(0, L-2) )

output   is the same as the 1^st REXX version.

faster version

This REXX version is faster   (uses   parse   instead of multiple BIFs).

/*REXX program demonstrates removal of  1st/last/1st-and-last  characters from a string.*/
@ = 'abcdefghijk'
say '                  the original string =' @

parse var @ 2 z
say 'string first        character removed =' z

m=length(@) - 1
parse var @ z +(m)
say 'string         last character removed =' z

n=length(@) - 2
parse var @ 2 z +(n)
if n==0  then z=                                /*handle special case of a length of 2.*/
say 'string first & last character removed =' z /*stick a fork in it,  we're all done. */

output   is the same as the 1^st REXX version.

Ring

aString = "1Welcome to the Ring Programming Language2"
see substr(aString,2,len(aString)-1) + nl +
substr(aString,1,len(aString)-1) + nl +
substr(aString,2,len(aString)-2) + nl

RPL

Basic RPL:

"Knight" 2 OVER SIZE SUB
"Socks" 1 OVER SIZE 1 - SUB
"Brooms" 2 OVER SIZE 1 - SUB

From HP-48 versions, one can also do this way:

"Knight" TAIL
"Socks" REVLIST TAIL REVLIST
"Brooms" TAIL REVLIST TAIL REVLIST

Output:

3: night
2: Sock
1: room

Ruby

puts "knight"[1..-1]   # strip first character
puts "socks"[0..-2]    # strip last character
puts "socks".chop      # alternate way to strip last character
puts "brooms"[1..-2]   # strip both first and last characters
puts "与今令"[1..-2]    # => 今

Run BASIC

s$  = "Run BASIC"
print mid$(s$,2)             'strip first
print left$(s$,len(s$) -1)   'strip last
print mid$(s$,2,len(s$) -2)  'strip first and last

Rust

One possibility is to modify the owned string representation:

fn main() {
    let s = String::from("žluťoučký kůň");

    let mut modified = s.clone();
    modified.remove(0);
    println!("{}", modified);

    let mut modified = s.clone();
    modified.pop();
    println!("{}", modified);

    let mut modified = s;
    modified.remove(0);
    modified.pop();
    println!("{}", modified);
}

Another possibility is to cut a string slice (moreover, this version assumes nothing about the string length):

fn main() {
    let s = "žluťoučký kůň";

    println!(
        "{}",
        s.char_indices()
            .nth(1)
            .map(|(i, _)| &s[i..])
            .unwrap_or_default()
    );

    println!(
        "{}",
        s.char_indices()
            .nth_back(0)
            .map(|(i, _)| &s[..i])
            .unwrap_or_default()
    );

    println!(
        "{}",
        s.char_indices()
            .nth(1)
            .and_then(|(i, _)| s.char_indices().nth_back(0).map(|(j, _)| i..j))
            .map(|range| &s[range])
            .unwrap_or_default()
    );
}

Scala

Library: Scala

println("knight".tail)               // strip first character
println("socks".init)         // strip last character
println("brooms".tail.init)   // strip both first and last characters

Scheme

(define (string-top s)
  (if (string=? s "") s (substring s 0 (- (string-length s) 1))))

(define (string-tail s)
  (if (string=? s "") s (substring s 1 (string-length s))))

(define (string-top-tail s)
  (string-tail (string-top s)))

sed

Remove the first character:

s/.//

Remove the last character:

s/.$//

Remove the first and the last character in one step (a bit more complex, to correctly handle single-character strings):

s/.\(\(.*\).\)\{0,1\}/\2/

Seed7

$ include "seed7_05.s7i";

const proc: main is func
  local
    const string: stri is "upraisers";
  begin
    writeln("Full string:   " <& stri);
    writeln("Without first: " <& stri[2 ..]);
    writeln("Without last:  " <& stri[.. pred(length(stri))]);
    writeln("Without both:  " <& stri[2 .. pred(length(stri))]);
  end func;

Output:

Full string:   upraisers
Without first: praisers
Without last:  upraiser
Without both:  praiser

SenseTalk

set message to peaceSymbol & "Peace!"
put message
put characters second to last of message
put characters 1 to -2 of message
put the second to penultimate characters of message

Output:

☮Peace!
Peace!
☮Peace
Peace

Sidef

Strip any characters:

say "knight".substr(1);       # strip first character
say "socks".substr(0, -1);    # strip last character
say "brooms".substr(1, -1);   # strip both first and last characters
say "与今令".substr(1, -1);    # => 今

Output:

night
sock
room
今

Strip graphemes:

var gstr = "J\x{332}o\x{332}s\x{332}e\x{301}\x{332}";
say gstr-/^\X/;                    # strip first grapheme
say gstr-/\X\z/;                   # strip last grapheme
say gstr.sub(/^\X/).sub(/\X\z/);   # strip both first and last graphemes

Output:

o̲s̲é̲
J̲o̲s̲
o̲s̲

Smalltalk

Works with: GNU Smalltalk

These all use built-in collection methods that will work with any kind of ordered collection, not just Strings. There is no error checking. They will fail if the string is not at least two characters long.

s := 'upraisers'.
Transcript show: 'Top: ', s allButLast; nl. 
Transcript show: 'Tail: ', s allButFirst; nl.   
Transcript show: 'Without both: ', s allButFirst allButLast; nl.    
Transcript show: 'Without both using substring method: ', (s copyFrom: 2 to: s size - 1); nl.

Output:

Top: upraiser                                                                                                                           
Tail: praisers                                                                                                                          
Without both: praiser                                                                                                                   
Without both using substring method: praiser 

SNOBOL4

     "knight" len(1) rem . output       ;* strip first character
     "socks" rtab(1) . output           ;* strip last character
     "brooms" len(1) rtab(1) . output   ;* strip both first and last characters

Standard ML

- val str = "abcde";
val str = "abcde" : string
- String.substring(str, 1, String.size str - 1);
val it = "bcde" : string
- String.substring(str, 0, String.size str - 1);
val it = "abcd" : string
- String.substring(str, 1, String.size str - 2);
val it = "bcd" : string

Swift

Swift strings are native Unicode strings and do not index through the code points. Swift's String.Index refers to true Unicode characters (Unicode grapheme clusters). Swift standard library has generic functionality that not only works with strings, but also with any type that conforms to relevant protocols. The first method presented here uses generic functions from Swift standard library:

let txt = "0123456789"
println(dropFirst(txt))
println(dropLast(txt))
println(dropFirst(dropLast(txt)))

Output:

123456789
012345678
12345678

The other method is slicing by range subscripting:

let txt = "0123456789"
println(txt[txt.startIndex.successor() ..< txt.endIndex])
println(txt[txt.startIndex             ..< txt.endIndex.predecessor()])
println(txt[txt.startIndex.successor() ..< txt.endIndex.predecessor()])

Output:

123456789
012345678
12345678

Another way is mutating the string:

var txt = "0123456789"
txt.removeAtIndex(txt.startIndex)
txt.removeAtIndex(txt.endIndex.predecessor())

The above functions return what they remove. You can also extend String type and define BASIC-style functions:

extension String {
    
    /// Ensure positive indexes
    
    private func positive(index: Int) -> Int {
        
        if index >= 0 { return index }
        
        return count(self) + index
    }
    
    /// Unicode character by zero-based integer (character) `index`
    /// Supports negative character index to count from end. (-1 returns character before last)
    
    subscript(index: Int) -> Character {
        
        return self[advance(startIndex, positive(index))]
    }
    
    /// String slice by character index
    
    subscript(range: Range<Int>) -> String {
        
        return self[advance(startIndex, range.startIndex) ..<
                    advance(startIndex, range.endIndex, endIndex)]
    }
    
    /// Left portion of text to `index`
    
    func left(index : Int) -> String {
        
        return self[0 ..< positive(index)]
    }
    
    /// Right portion of text from `index`
    
    func right(index : Int) -> String{
        
        return self[positive(index) ..< count(self)]
    }
    
    /// From `start` index until `end` index
    
    func mid(start: Int, _ end: Int) -> String {
        
        return self[positive(start) ..< positive(end)]
    }
    
}

let txt = "0123456789"

txt.right(1) // Right part without first character
txt.left(-1) // Left part without last character
txt.mid(1,-1) // Middle part without first and last character

Tcl

puts [string range "knight" 1 end];       # strip first character
puts [string range "write" 0 end-1];        # strip last character
puts [string range "brooms" 1 end-1];       # strip both first and last characters

TorqueScript

String with first character removed

 %string = "Moo";
 %string = getSubStr(%string, 1, strLen(%string) - 1);
 echo(%string);

String with last character removed

 %string = "Moo";
 %string = getSubStr(%string, 0, strLen(%string) - 1);
 echo(%string);

String with both the first and last characters removed

 %string = "Moo";
 %string = getSubStr(%string, 1, strLen(%string) - 2);
 echo(%string);

Output:

 oo
 Mo
 o

TUSCRIPT

$$ MODE TUSCRIPT
str="upraisers"
str1=EXTRACT (str,2,0)
str2=EXTRACT (str,0,-1)
str3=EXTRACT (str,2,-1)
PRINT str
PRINT str1
PRINT str2
PRINT str3

Output:

upraisers
praisers
upraiser
upraiser 

UNIX Shell

First or last character:

str='abcdefg'
echo "${str#?}"   # Remove first char
echo "${str%?}"   # Remove last char

First and last character:

Only zsh supports nested string manipulation.

echo ${${str#?}%?}   # Remove first & last chars

bash and ksh, use substring expansion, from character index 1 for length of (string length) minus 2

echo "${s:1:${#s}-2}"

POSIX shells like dash, need a temp variable

tmp=${s#?}; tmp=${tmp%?}; echo "$tmp"

Vala

// declare test string
string s = "Hello, world!";
// remove first letter
string s_first = s[1:s.length];
//remove last letter
string s_last = s[0:s.length - 1];
// remove first and last letters
string s_first_last = s[1:s.length - 1];

VBScript

Function TopNTail(s,mode)
    Select Case mode
        Case "top"
            TopNTail = Mid(s,2,Len(s)-1)
        Case "tail"
            TopNTail = Mid(s,1,Len(s)-1)
        Case "both"
            TopNTail = Mid(s,2,Len(s)-2)
    End Select
End Function

WScript.Echo "Top: UPRAISERS = " & TopNTail("UPRAISERS","top")
WScript.Echo "Tail: UPRAISERS = " & TopNTail("UPRAISERS","tail")
WScript.Echo "Both: UPRAISERS = " & TopNTail("UPRAISERS","both")

Output:

Top: UPRAISERS = PRAISERS
Tail: UPRAISERS = UPRAISER
Both: UPRAISERS = PRAISER

Wren

Library: Wren-str

As Wren's string slicing and other built-in methods generally work at the byte level, we use the above module for this task which works at the code-point level.

import "./str" for Str

var a = "Beyoncé"
var b = Str.delete(a, 0)
var len = a.codePoints.count
var c = Str.delete(a, len-1)
var d = Str.delete(c, 0)
for (e in [a, b, c, d]) System.print(e)

Output:

Beyoncé
eyoncé
Beyonc
eyonc

XPL0

include c:\cxpl\stdlib;
char S, P;
[S:= "Smiles";
Text(0, S+1);           \first character removed
CrLf(0);
P:= S + StrLen(S) - 2;  \point to last character in string
P(0):= P(0) ! $80;      \set the MSb on the last character
Text(0, S);             \last character removed
CrLf(0);
Text(0, S+1);           \first and last characters removed
CrLf(0);
]

Output:

miles
Smile
mile

zkl

"Smiles"[1,*]  //-->miles
"Smiles"[0,-1] //-->Smile
"Smiles"[1,-1] //-->mile

[] format is [offset (zero based), length]. * means "to the end", a negative number means from the end.

ZX Spectrum Basic

10 PRINT FN f$("knight"): REM strip the first letter. You can also write PRINT "knight"(2 TO)
20 PRINT FN l$("socks"): REM strip the last letter
30 PRINT FN b$("brooms"): REM strip both the first and last letter
100 STOP

9000 DEF FN f$(a$)=a$(2 TO LEN(a$))
9010 DEF FN l$(a$)=a$(1 TO LEN(a$)-(1 AND (LEN(a$)>=1)))
9020 DEF FN b$(a$)=FN l$(FN f$(a$))